A classic turn-based RPG in the style of Dragon Quest is not exactly the first place my mind goes when it comes to thinking of game genres that would pair well with the action-heavy world of One Piece, but as One Piece Odyssey proves, it\u2019s actually kind of a great fit. The Straw Hats make for one hell of a party of RPG characters; Eichiro Oda\u2019s one-of-a-kind art style lends itself well to filling the world with fantastical and amusing creatures; and the over-the-top nature of battles from the actual manga and anime gives plenty of material for some of the coolest (and funniest) special attacks I\u2019ve seen in any turn-based RPG. Those fights would\u2019ve been better if they were a more consistent challenge, and I could\u2019ve done with less backtracking through areas I\u2019d already explored, but this is still a surprisingly satisfying JRPG that\u2019s not quite by the numbers.<\/p>\n
The story begins with Luffy and crew suddenly finding themselves marooned on the mysterious island of Waford. It isn’t long before they meet two original characters: Lim and Adio, who have an understandably deep distrust of pirates. So much so that, upon first meeting, they steal the powers of the Straw Hats, providing a convenient way to explain why Luffy and company don\u2019t win every battle just by looking at their enemies. (Though, that does come later.)<\/p>\n
What follows is a grand story that plays out on two fronts: The adventure in Waford sees The Straw Hat crew attempting to help Adio and Lim by defeating a handful of elemental colossi that are responsible for the giant storm that surrounds the island (I know, what\u2019s the worst that could happen?); and another that plays out in Memoria, a world of memory created through Lim\u2019s special ability that allows the Straw Hats to revisit specific locations and events in their history. The revelations and twists won\u2019t shock anybody, but I still very much enjoyed both sides of Odyssey\u2019s story. Lim, especially, is a wonderful addition to the cast, and I loved watching her go from being extremely wary and cold towards the crew to being intrigued and occasionally flabbergasted by each of their individual quirks, and eventually fully embracing the Straw Hats as her friends. <\/p>\n
Odyssey is aimed directly at long-time One Piece fans.<\/p>\n
It should be noted that Odyssey is aimed directly at long-time One Piece fans, with its story picking up well after the Dressrosa arc (about 750 episodes in), and it is not shy about diving deep into some of the biggest surprises of the show. This makes it a tough recommendation for anybody new to the series, but if you\u2019re deeply invested in the world and characters of One Piece, there are some really great payoffs in the Memoria chapters. These come in the form of \u201cwhat if\u201d-like scenarios that have the crew revisiting pivotal moments from the series with new perspectives. Even small things, like the crew reacting to seeing the Going Merry docked at Alabasta, is a moment that provides a powerful emotional gut punch for any long-time fan like myself. Moments like these are the heart of One Piece Odyssey\u2019s story, and they\u2019re brought to life brilliantly thanks to writing that feels totally in step with the anime and manga, excellent performances, and a fantastic art style that authentically translates the unique style of One Piece to 3D. <\/p>\n
One Piece Odyssey\u2019s combat is refreshingly simple, though that simplicity does wind up being a double-edged sword. The traditional turn-based combat is powered by a rock\/paper\/scissors logic that assigns every party member, enemy, and boss a damage type of either power, speed, or technique. Power beats speed, technique beats power, and speed beats technique. What makes this system work is that there\u2019s no traditional turn order, and you can just freely pick whatever character you want to take the first move in combat. Even if they\u2019re not in your active party of four characters, you can freely swap them in without taking up a turn. You\u2019re also able to see which of your enemies will be next up to take their turn and try and plan around that as well. Once all four characters in your active party have taken an action, the round of combat ends and everyone is able to act once again.<\/p>\n\n
The one complication to all of this is that there are multiple zones in the combat field, and in order for one character to move from one to another, they must first defeat all of the enemies in their own zone. So on paper, there\u2019s some strategy involved in deciding the order of which of your characters should attack first. Let\u2019s say for example, there\u2019s a group of enemies in one zone that have a weakness to Technique, but my strongest technique character, Zoro, is stuck in a zone with a single enemy that\u2019s weak to Speed. I can have Usopp, my Speed character, go first by using a ranged attack to hit enemies in other zones to free up Zoro; then, Zoro can clean up the other zone with one of his attacks that hit multiple enemies.<\/p>\n
One Piece Odyssey is so easy for 95% of its battles that strategy is rarely required.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s an example of how the strategy could <\/em>come into play. The problem is that One Piece Odyssey is so easy for 95% of its battles that strategy is rarely required, and there\u2019s no way to adjust the difficulty. I never grinded \u2013 in fact, I ran past a lot of enemies that could\u2019ve given me even more exp \u2013 and still felt wildly overpowered for most of the 40 or so hours it took me to reach the end. A lot of this stems from the Dramatic Scenes system, which randomly gives you an additional objective during certain enemy encounters. They\u2019re almost always trivially easy, like \u201cdefeat enemy C before a crew member gets knocked out,\u201d but the bonus they reward is just astronomical, sometimes doubling or more than tripling the amount of exp earned for a single fight. I\u2019ve fought packs of rats that gave more exp than big, chapter-ending boss battles. That just seems poorly balanced.<\/p>\n One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 is a great One Piece game, and though it wears its many flaws on its sleeveless, red button-down top and straw hat, its smart additions to combat go a long way in reducing the notorious tedium that typically plagues the musou genre. It\u2019s still a tough sell to a non-One Piece fan, but as someone who absolutely loves One Piece and was only just sort of into Musou games, I found a ton to like in Pirate Warriors 4. \u2013 Mitchell Saltzman, March 27, 2020<\/em><\/p>\nWhat We Said About One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4<\/h2>\n
Score: 8<\/h2>\n